Author's Note : Well, here's a chapter with Magus and Kelke in it! More Magus, though, as you may be pleased to hear. It, um… gets a bit fluffy…
Lavos countdown – four chapters!
Chapter Fifteen – The kitchen, Altrisiac
"So can we go home yet?"
"No, Crono, not yet," Schala admitted with a sigh. "We were meant to construct the Barrier. The others had an argument instead. According to Kelke, Jandegar will get us to try again tomorrow."
"We'd better hurry," Lucca put in. "Magus, will you hurry up with those potatoes?"
"I didn't cook anything last time, I was the waiter," the good evil wizard shot back. Standing at the sink, he was attempting to peel some potatoes with a knife. "Well, and then I tried, but someone had made the oven incredibly complicated."
"All you had to do was hold a button down to let the gas in so you could light the pilot light, Magus, that's not very complicated," Lucca replied mercilessly.
"And my hands are very well, thank you," continued Magus.
"I know, we all know they're very good, they healed when you put them in the black pool."
"Kelke put them in, not me," Magus replied archly.
"Just be quiet and get on with it!" Lucca snapped.
Magus grumbled, "Okay, okay, I'm getting. What are you doing with these potatoes anyway?"
"Mashing them."
"Oh really? Sounds vicious… so what's it like, Schala, being a Mage?"
"Terrible," Schala sighed. Sitting at the kitchen table, she was watching Magus and Lucca as they attempted to cook something. "And boring. And I've only officially been a Mage for three hours!" The others had easily accepted the fact that she was the Entity and treated her, as she wanted them to, as though she were still just Schala. "If you don't mind me asking, why have you taken over the kitchen?"
"Old times' sake," Magus explained, explaining nothing. "Lucca? Cut into lots of little bits if you want them mashed?"
"Yes please, and do you want me to light the oven?" Lucca teased.
"You just wait!" Eagerly cutting the potato and putting the bits in a saucepan already half-filled with water, Magus made a few gestures and used magic to light the pilot light.
"Most people just use the buttons," Lucca allowed, handing him another potato.
"We're in Altrisiac," he reminded her, peeling the potato. "Do you think the Mages press buttons or use magic?"
"I really don't think the Mages cook," Lucca replied, turning over the steaks that she was cooking.
"When in Altrisiac, do as the Mages do…" said Magus airily.
"Oh please no!" Schala pleaded. Pressing her temples, she added, "They're children, really… they give me such a headache…"
"And these are the people you want us to help?" asked Marle sceptically.
"We're not all children."
The icy tone was bad enough but they all recognised the voice and all of them glanced up to where Kelke stood in the doorway. Crono rested one hand lightly on the hilt of his sword, which he took everywhere, and Marle, weaponless, resorted to crossing her arms and glaring.
"What do you think you're doing here?" Magus asked Kelke archly.
"This is my universe," responded the Shadow Mage. "I have a right to be here.You should be asking yourself that." He spoke to Schala. "Jandegar," and the name seemed distasteful to him, "requests your presence in the Chamber of the Mages. He wants to try the Barrier again."
"Aren't we waiting until tomorrow?" asked Schala.
"He's had a change of heart. Come on."
"But what about Kerrelei?" protested Schala. "Hasn't she been exiled?"
"He says we can do it without Kerrelei. Tarreiz, of course, argued, and the only reason she hasn't been exiled is because without her we wouldn't be able to do anything. That's why I'm still here. Come on," Kelke ordered again.
Magus abandoned the potatoes in favour of Schala. "You'd better be nicer to my sister, Kelke," he warned, moving to Schala's side. "But not too nice," he added, remembering Kelke's seeming romantic interest in Schala.
Alfador, winding himself around Magus' feet, meowed his agreement. Kelke glared at the cat and said sharply, "Shut up."
"Do not be rude to my cat," Magus snapped.
"Do you consider this wise?" Kelke asked him mockingly, leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded. "To challenge a Mage in Altrisiac? You do know that one yell from me will have the others here in a second. They may not be a great deal of help and they'll come reluctantly, but they'll come regardless."
"Do you need the other Mages to protect you?" Magus asked innocently. "Well, I guess it makes sense… you're not much of an evil wizard, are you?"
"In a magical fight I would kill you."
"Ah, but you haven't yet," Magus pointed out.
Kelke offered, "Would you like me to try? I'd be more than willing." Then, with a glance at Lucca, he added, "Unless of course you want your girlfriend to fight me for you again…"
Just before Magus opened his mouth to say something that would get them all killed, Schala spoke. "Kelke, please try not to provoke my brother. It would make life easier for all of us," she explained. "Could you do that for me?"
"I guess," Kelke muttered. "Now hurry up, Jandegar's already impatient." He stepped aside to let Schala pass and then paused to look Magus up and down. "You're lucky," he said simply and departed.
"You would not have killed me!" Magus yelled angrily after him. He added to himself, "Might have set me back a bit, but he wouldn't have killed me. Now, Lucca, what was it you wanted me to do? Do I still have to peel potatoes?"
"Yes," Lucca said firmly, and with a highly exaggerated sigh, Magus returned to the potatoes.
"Hey, Crono, let's… go and do something," Marle suggested.
"Why?" asked Crono. "Don't you like the kitchen?"
"Well, it's a very nice kitchen, but don't you think you'd really like to go and do something else? Training? With weapons or magic or… something?"
"I'm too tired to do weapons training," Crono yawned. With a glance at Magus, he added, "And there's no point doing anything magical without Magus, but he's been drafted for kitchen duty."
"Damn straight," Lucca agreed.
"Let's go outside and take a walk," Marle hissed desperately.
Crono looked out the window. "It's too cold. It's snowing!"
Not even turning, Magus suggested, "Why don't you agree to one of Marle's rather pathetic excuses for the two of you to leave, which is an obvious attempt to leave Lucca and me alone in the kitchen?"
"Oh!" Crono exclaimed, getting up. "Why didn't you just say so?" he asked Marle. "We'll go and see what everyone else is doing. I hope Ayla hasn't tried to eat the décor again…"
Crono and Marle left, leaving Lucca and Magus alone in the kitchen, which was what Marle had intended, but not quite in such an obvious way. For a while there was easy silence between the two. Magus finally finished the potatoes and put them in a saucepan to boil as Lucca saw to the vegetables.
"What now?" Magus asked cheerfully, glancing around the kitchen.
"Now we just wait until everything's finished, and we can all have a decent meal for once," Lucca responded, stepping back and surveying her handwork proudly. "You know, I really think I could improve their oven…"
"No, Lucca. Don't mess with the kitchen of the Mages. They probably won't like it," Magus warned, sitting down at the table.
"You're probably right," Lucca agreed with a sigh. Sitting opposite him, she regarded him for a moment. "Magus…"
"Yes, Lucca?"
"The… in the Black Citadel," she began, and Magus looked away as he realised what she was talking about. Lucca bit her lower lip at this response but pressed on bravely. "When we were getting out of it. Before you tried to distract Kelke so we could get out, you… you kissed me. Why did you do that?"
There was a pause in which Magus himself tried to find a reason. "There isn't… there's no reason as such," he began, giving her an almost apologetic look. "Mostly it was because I was pretty sure Kelke was going to kill me, which, thanks to Frog's interference, he didn't."
"And you… what? Wanted to get it over with before you died, or something?"
"I said there wasn't much of a reason, Lucca," he retorted almost sharply.
"I'm not saying it was wrong of you, or anything," she assured him. "I mean… well, that is to say…"
"Look, let's get something straight," Magus said firmly. "I like you."
Lucca nodded, not really sure if 'like' was what she wanted, and had begun to speak when Magus interrupted her to continue with, "As in, I really like you. Enough to take advantage of your ever-so-slight tipsiness to make a bargain with you to lend you my cloak if you took off your shirt."
She smiled at the memory, not that she could exactly remember it. "Well, you have a strange way of showing it."
"What's that supposed to mean?" he snapped defensively.
"It means that!"
"What?"
"You!"
"Oh, it's my fault for doing everything wrong, is it?"
"Calm down!" she instructed. "I'm not saying anything's your fault, I'm just saying… well, there's no need to snap at me, is all."
"I don't know how to do this," he muttered sullenly, leaning back in his chair and glaring at the table.
"Nor do I," she admitted.
"Well, I'm sure you've had more experience with it."
"Not really," Lucca disagreed. "In fact, I probably haven't."
"You were most likely raised in an environment where love was normal. My mother was too busy obsessing over Lavos to notice me for most of my childhood and I spent the rest of my life with Ozzie, who only loved my power."
"I sense distinct bitterness," she noted with a small smile, resting both elbows on the table, lacing her fingers together and resting her chin on them. "Tell me all about it."
"This is too hard," he said sharply. "It would never work out."
"You can't condemn something that hasn't started yet."
"Yes I can," he argued, "I can condemn anything I like!"
"Well, you probably could." Lucca glanced at the stove. "Uh-oh!" she exclaimed and jumped up to attend to the vegetables, which were boiling over. "Okay," she said when the crisis was past, returning to the table. "After a break in this serious conversation… what would make it too hard?"
"Everything," he retorted. "Don't you understand, I'm not a safe person to be around? You feel the black wind like I do, which is never a good thing. Kelke hates me and may very well use you to hurt me. What if Lavos kills you? What will I do then?"
"That wouldn't be your fault," she argued.
He countered, "I'd feel like it was."
"Look, Magus – "
He cut her off. "Anyway, I'm evil."
"Not any more."
"I am. I might not want to be but it's something I am, and I can't change that," he pointed out almost triumphantly. "See? I'm evil, and you wouldn't want to be with someone who's evil."
"I've always had a thing for evil people," she countered with a smile, although in fact Magus was the only 'evil' person she had ever really liked.
"I'm a murderer."
"So are we," Lucca put in instantly. "I've lost count of the amount of Mystics we've killed." Her brow furrowed at the thought. "Which is horrible, really."
"I'm not right for you. I'm too old. It would never work."
"Why are you making such an effort to push me away?" she demanded. "I put up with your rudeness, I tried to find you even though you'd threatened to kill both Marle and Frog, I went with you to get Alfador – "
"I never asked you – " he began.
"Shut up and listen," she snapped. "You've had your rant, so you can damn well sit through mine. We had a birthday party for you despite your attempt to leave before it even really started! We went to an Alternate Universe for you and you showed your gratitude by going off on your own without telling any of us!"
"I had to – "
"You might have told someone!" Lucca continued. "Do you have any idea how much I worried about you? You could have been dead for all we knew!"
"I wanted to take you with me but I was too scared you'd get hurt," he snapped. "The way that everyone I've ever been close to has been hurt."
"Magus…" said Lucca gently, "I'm not going to let anyone hurt me."
"Well I certainly can't protect you," he pointed out, arms folded. "I'm not as powerful as I once was. Not yet. I'm working on it but I still need more time. Oh sure, I can pull off most of the spells I could before but they're not – If you lot hadn't helped me with Kelke, I would never have been able to defeat him, with or without magic. And that hurts. I doubt you understand how much that hurts. I hate having to depend on anyone, especially you lot. And it's pointless anyway. I couldn't even protect Schala. As Janus or the Prophet."
"Schala doesn't need protection," Lucca stated firmly, "and neither do I."
"It won't work," Magus said flatly, "and that's the bottom line. You can try all you like but it won't – "
Lucca leaned across the table to kiss him. After a moment he rested one hand on her face, moved it down to her neck. The table made it a little difficult but they rose to the challenge, managing very well, thank you very much.
Lucca broke it off but kept her face close to his. Smiling, she queried, "Do you really think it won't work? I think we can make it work."
"I think maybe we can," he agreed and claimed her mouth. They had gained considerable confidence by now and Lucca in particular had more of an idea about what she was meant to be doing.
The clanging of saucepan lids brought the both of them out of their little dream world and Lucca glanced over at the stove. "Uh-oh!" she said again, considerably more urgently this time, and rushed over to attend to the boiling pots.